Novel urine deflector

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a novel urine defector that helps prevent spillage of urine through the gap under the toilet seat when the user sits on the toilet and passes urine. It consists of a one-piece device that can be detachably connected to the front part of a toilet seat and enables the toilet cover to be closed when not in use. The invention has a deflection member, which has a superior surface and four edges. By the peculiar arrangement of extensions from two of these edges, one of which is the deflection member, can be made to fit securely on the top of the front part of a toilet seat.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefits and priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/680,029 filed Jun. 04, 2018, entitled A NOVEL URINE DEFLECTOR, which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a detachable urine deflector for connectivity with different configurations of western toilet seats to prevent spillage of urine outside the toilet bowls. Moreover, the invention relates to systems and methods for a better up-keeping of the hygiene of the toilet-room by preventing accidental splashing of urine in the toilet floor and clothes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Toilets and its immediate peripheries always have greater propensity of becoming the most unhygienic place in one's living place on account of unhygienic toilet usage of users. Amongst the various unsanitary behaviours aggravating such unhygienic conditions, misdirected or splashed urine, mostly by male users and children causes squirting and leakages from the toilet bowl that creates an un-hygienic condition and associated cleaning difficulties. The end result could be unclean environment harbouring bacterial propagation leading to high chances of infections amongst subsequent users.

A common cause of this unsanitary condition is when sitting down to open bowels or pass urine, urine gets spilled through the gap under the toilet seat onto the floor or clothes. When it falls on the floor, it causes smelly toilets and possible propagation of bacteria. When it falls on clothes, it causes unnecessary inconvienience for the user.

Cleaning and sanitizing the splashed urine from amongst the above toilet floor is quite cumbersome and filthy job that most users try to avoid, hence use of methods to prevent splashing of urine are being tried out in quite a number of inventions.

For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,408,447 B1 titled, “Adult Urine Splash Guard” a design of a urine deflector that is detachably interconnected with a toilet Seat of the type having an upper surface designed to support a user and a hole defined through the seat is discussed. The deflector includes a stream deflection member designed to deflect a stream of urine into the toilet bowl. The deflection member has a concave deflection Surface. A support member is provided that has a generally planar body designed to be supported on the upper Surface of the toilet Seat. The generally planar body supports the deflection member such that when the generally planar body is placed on the upper Surface of the toilet Seat, the deflection member projects into the hole in the seat and the concave deflection surface faces a user seated on the seat. The support member also includes an attachment for releasably retaining the generally planar body in engagement with the upper surface of the Seat.

In another invention, U.S. Pat. No. 8,266,731 B2 titled, “Toilet Seat with Urine Deflector” a toilet seat for use with a Western-style toilet bowl is discussed. The seat has a generally-oval, endless base that compliments the shape of the toilet bowl rim. A deflector is fixed to the bottom surface of the base and extends downwardly adjacent the inside surface of the bowl rim. The deflector covers the interior gap between the bottom of the seat and the top of the bowl.

In the above inventions, the deflectors have different attachment procedures as well as distinctly different shapes rendering their methods of limiting spillage of urine.

Accordingly, it would be an improvement in the art to augment or even replace current techniques with other techniques, which the present application works upon.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is thus an aspect of the invention to develop an improved apparatus for urine deflection to prevent spillage of urine and at the same time extremely simple to attach to a toilet seat.

In another aspect of the invention, the sleek designed urine deflector is compatible with a variety of western toilet seat configurations that are available in the market.

In still another aspect of the invention, the said urine deflector is functional in a form wherein it prevents complete leakage of urine from between the rim of the toilet seat and toilet bowl.

In yet another aspect of the invention, the uniqueness and improvement of the urine deflector is brought forth through the typical isosceles trapezoidal quadrilateral shape of its top surface entailing a line of symmetry.

In another aspect of the invention, the said top surface has 4 edges placed in symmetric positions.

Still in another aspect of the invention, the first and the second edges are placed symmetrically opposite to one another with the third edge placed in a way to transform itself in the form of a lip for maintaining an apt grip of the underside of the front of the toilet seat and the extension off the fourth edge with its concave flap primarily working towards fixing the deflector on the inner surface of the back of the toilet seat rim.

In another aspect of the invention, the curvatures of the concave flap described above can be varied in lieu of the size of the toilet seat.

Due to the nature of the Urine deflector, when not in use, the the toilet seat can kept closed by the seat cover as the deflector fits discretely and does not project outward preventing closure.

The invention has the benefit of being a one-piece invention with no need for assembly

It also has the benefit of being unlikely to fall into the toilet bowl iself as it is secure all round.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates the inferior perspective view of the urine deflector in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates the side perspective view of the urine deflector in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates the profile perspective view of the urine deflector in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates the profile perspective view of the urine deflector in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates the profile perspective view of the urine deflector in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates a side view of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates a side view of another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates the view from above of one embodiment of the present invention for round/oval toilet seats;

FIG. 9 illustrates the view from above of another embodiment of the present invention for square/rectangular toilet seats;

FIG. 10 illustrates a view of the urine deflector fitted to a toilet seat

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Disclaimer and broadness of invention: The present invention may be understood more readily by reference to the following detailed description of the invention taken in connection with the accompanying drawing figures, which forms a part of this disclosure. It is to be understood that this invention is not limited to the specific devices, methods, conditions or parameters described and/or shown herein and that the terminology used herein is for example only and is not intended to be limiting of the claimed invention. Also, as used in the specification including the appended claims, the singular forms ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’ include the plural, and references to a particular numerical value includes at least that particular value unless the content clearly directs otherwise. Ranges may be expressed herein as from ‘about’ or ‘approximately’ another particular value when such a range is expressed in another embodiment. Also, it will be understood that unless otherwise indicated, dimensions and material characteristics stated herein are by way of example rather than limitation, and are for better understanding of sample embodiment of suitable utility, and variations outside of the stated values may also be within the scope of the invention depending upon the particular application. This invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways. Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including”, “comprising”, “having”, “containing”, “involving”, and variations thereof as well as additional items.

Reference will now be made in details to the various embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers used in the drawings and description to refer to the same or like parts.

Referring now to FIGS. 1-10, an adult urine deflector according to the present invention is generally marked 11 in FIGS. 1 & 10. The deflector 11 is designed to be coupled to a variety of toilet seat configurations.

The urine deflector prevents urine from splashing, squirting or leaking between the rim of the toilet bowl and the toilet seat especially when men and children urinate from the sitting position. In embodiments described, the urine deflector is used with a Western-style toilet bowl having a bowl rim width, a bowl inner diameter, and a bowl outer diameter.

Normally, toilet seats have oval, round, square or rectangular shapes that compliments the shape of the toilet bowl rim. The base has a top surface, bottom surface, an outer periphery, and an inner periphery having a seat inner diameter.

Referring now to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, one embodiment of the urine deflector comprises of a top planar surface (12) shaped like an isosceles trapezoid quadrilateral having a line of symmetry. The width of the top planer surface is that of a standard width between the outer and inner rim of the toilet seat. The top planar surface, hence has 4 edges namely a first (12′), second (12″) third (14) and fourth (16″) edge. The first and the second edges are placed opposite to each other which maintain a line of symmetry and is configured to be placed on the top surface of the toilet seat. When the urine deflector is looked at from above, the third (14) and fourth (16″) edge are curved anteriorly (See 26 in FIGS. 4 & 8). The length of the third edge (14), is configured to be placed on the outer rim of the front part of the toilet seat is shorter than the length of the fourth edge (16) which is configured to be placed on the inner rim of the front part of the toilet seat toilet seat. As is depicted in FIG. 3, the third edge (14) extends downwards to form an extension (18) the height of which confirms with the thickness of the toilet seat. The extension (18) further curves to form a lip extension (20) which helps in gripping the underside of the toilet seat. As is shown in FIG. 2, the extension (18) of the urine deflector is at right angle to the lip extension (20).

The fourth edge (16) is contoured in a shape so as to be fixed appropriately with the inner rim of the toilet seat and the toilet bowl as shown in FIG. 3. The fourth edge (16) after curving at the periphery forms an extension (22) with a slight curvature to conform with the shape and thickness of the toilet seat and the inner rim of the toilet bowl together as shown in FIG. 3. The extension ends with a concave curve (24) which supports the urine deflector to stay firmly fixed on the inner surface of the toilet seat.

In different embodiments of the present invention, the curvature of the concave flap (24) can be increased or decreased during its manufacture to suit the various shapes of the toilet bowl and toilet seat (25 of FIGS. 6 & 7).

Further to this, in different embodiments of the present invention, when looked at from above, the anterior curvature of the third edge (14) and fourth edge (16) of the superior top surface can be manufactured to be of varying curvatures depending upon the shape of the toilet seat. If the toilet seat is round/oval, or curved in shape, the respective third (14) and fourth (16) edges are curved in conformity with the rim shape of the toilet seat (See 26 in FIGS. 4 & 8). If however, the toilet seat and bowl is square in shape then, the third (14) and fourth (16) edges of the planar surfaces are also straight in line with the shape of the toilet seat (See 27 in FIGS. 5 & 9).

Accordingly, although embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.

The invention may be manufactured by any of the following means, including but not limited to 3D printing, CNC Machining and Injection Molding.

Material of manufacture could be by any of the following, including but not limited to Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG), Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), Poly Carbonate, Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), Copolyester, other form of plastics, silicone, rubber etc 

1. A urine deflector for detachable interconnection with the front part of a toilet seat comprising of a one piece, deflection member for obscuring the gap between the toilet seat and toilet bowl preventing urine spillage outside the toilet bowl trough the gap. Said deflection member having a superior top surface wherein the said superior surface has 4 edges namely a first (12′), second (12″) third (14) and fourth (16) edge; characterized in that the said first (12′) and the said second edges (12″) are placed opposite to each other. The said third edge (14) whick when looked at from above is curved anteriorly (26) is configured to be placed on the outer rim of the the front part of the toilet seat and the said fourth edge (16) also curved anteriorly (26) is configured to be placed on the inner rim of the the front part of the toilet seat.
 2. The urine deflector of claim 1, wherein, the said third edge (14) extends downwards to form an extension (18), which curves further to form a lip extension (20) as a support for gripping the underside of the front of the toilet seat.
 3. The urine deflector of claim 2, wherein, the height of the said extension (18) from the said third edge is equivalent or bigger than the thickness of the toilet seat.
 4. The urine deflector of claim 2, wherein, the said extension (18) of the urine deflector is at right angle to the said lip extension (20).
 5. The urine deflector of claim 1, wherein, the said fourth edge (16) curves at the periphery and forms an extension (22) with a slight curvature to conform with the shape and thickness of the toilet seat, the said extension (22) ends with a concave curve (24) which supports the urine deflector to stay firmly fixed on the inner surface of the toilet seat.
 6. The urine deflector of claim 5, wherein the curvature of the concave curve (24) can be increased or decreased during its manufacture to suit the various shapes of the toilet bowl and toilet seat.
 7. The urine deflector of claim 1, which when it is looked at from above, wherein the anterior curvature (26) of the said third edge (14) and said fourth edge (16) of the superior top surface (12) can be manufactured to be curved when the toilet seat is oval, round or other like curved shape and straight (27) when the toilet seat is square or rectangular in shape. 